Can't copy paste images from web to Word 2003

This sounds absurd, but I just noticed I can't do what I have done without problems for years.
Essentially when I copy a part or whole web "document" & paste into Word 2003, I get the text & just empty boxes where the images should be.
Now this simple copy-paste routine has worked before in XP & I am pretty sure in Windows 7 (64 bit) which I now have.
It looks as though something has changed, but despite my best efforts & ages spent Googling for a solution, nothing seems to work.
This is really inconvenient because I use this approach a good deal & it allows me to edit, & even change image position & size when I wish to do that.
BTW I always note in copied stuff the original URL & the name of the author.
Is this a Word 2003 settings issue or is something more sinister likely the cause.

- can you give an actual example of the type of "document" that you wish to copy?

Bugmeister,
You asked for an example.
Any web page with text & pics would serve for demonstration purposes, because I tried many randomly, & I was not successful whereas in the past I have doen this without any problem, & without even giving the matter a second thought.
Eventually after some more hours experimenting, & after finding a web page dealing with this exact problem I was able to fix the problem.
It boiled down to Word 2003 settings, which in my case, I guess, had become corrupted.
The web article by: Suzanne S. Barnhill and Dave Rado
I inserted some graphics in a document, but now I can't see them; or there is just an empty box where one should be; or my graphics won't print

Word 2003 section extract:
The solutions - Word 2003 and earlier

• On the View menu of the horizontal scroll bar, choose Print Layout view. Floating (wrapped) graphics don't display in Normal view. Comment: This instruction defeats me, I have never before had to select anything so the normal view obviously works.
• Go to Tools | Options | View and make sure that “Drawings” is checked and that “Picture placeholders” is not checked. Comment: OK but this seemed to be the standard settings for my Normal.doc
• If some graphics are not printing (or not displaying in Print Preview), go to Tools | Options | Print and make sure that “Drawing objects” is checked. Comment: again this appears to be my standard setting in Normal.doc
• Go to Format | Paragraph and make sure that line spacing of the paragraph the picture is in is not set to an Exact value. Comment: not easy to understand exactly what this means, am I expected to check every para where a pic is to be placed, actually the spacing seems to be set to zero which is exact but seems to work just fine.

Now this is only a portion of a quite complex article but iy may give the hint to others like me who find themselves stymied. The red porttions are my comments which I made when I saved the aticle, they may also be useful to those who start experimenting but don't really understan d what's wrong.

My final conclusion (as is very frequently the case) is that MS has done a very poor job of enabling this fundamental task. No one should have to spend hours experimenting like this.
And the article i refer to is anything but simple or straightforward & contains at least one silly workaround suggestion.

Hope this helps some one.
I am now fine doing what I always did without a second thought, but I have wasted hours in finding a solution.

Peter O

- that's great news, and thanks very much for sending in the solution..

- it will certainly benefit others..